Once again the Doonhamers inability to kill-off opponents has left them with two fewer points than should have been. An early lead that was comfortable was surrendered after a penalty award was saved with the score at 2-0 and then the midfield sat back with disastrous consequences.
It had all started so differently, a confident looking Queens side took to the field in 4-4-2 formation with Andy Aitken taking over the injured Jim Thomsons role as skipper and central defensive partner to Derek Allan, upfront was Glancy and Weatherson and in midfield the familiar line of Connelly, O'Neill, Davidson and McAlpine. On the bench were two new faces, Gordon Burns, signed earlier in the week and Allan Moore, the former Morton, Partick, Airdrie, Livvie, Dunfermline, St.Johnstone, Hearts and Dumbarton forward, playing as a trialist but now signed up.
The first fifteen minutes saw only two incidents of note, both goals for the Doonhamers, firstly Paddy Atkinson flicked in his third goal of the season from a short corner played in by Gordon Connolly and then in fifteen minutes John O'Neill used his head to finish off a nice move that had seen Peter Weatherson neatly turn his man on the left flank and although his cross was too deep it was retrieved by Gordon Connolly and his return cross was met perfectly by O'Neill to set Queens up for what looked like a comfortable victory.
Berwick though had other ideas and whilst they have players of undoubted ability individually they were finding it difficult to operate as a team, top scorer from last season Gary Wood was actually playing in a left back position whilst Kevin Thomas and former Queens loan signing Craig Feroz struggled to create many chances. As the half wore on Berwick did show what they were capable of, Feroz in particular had a couple of efforts well blocked by Allan Gray and in general Gray had Feroz well under control for much of the match.
The second half was, like last week, a different matter, Berwick made a tactical substitution removing Thomas and moving Wood into his more familiar striking role, this certainly helped their cause, but it did look all over for the borderers when Martin Glancy had his shirt pulled in the box in front of the referee, a penalty seemed a touch harsh but in the event it made no difference as John O'Neill, for the second successive penalty, saw his effort saved by McCulloch in the Berwick goal.
Shortly afterwards the out of sorts McAlpine was replaced by Allan Moore, Joe had probably one of his poorest games today and at times looked totally disinterested in what was going on, his replacement came as no surprise to anyone.
The first touch that Moore had was a flicked header on to Glancy, he immediately played Allan Gray down the wing and the right back sent in an excellent ball that was just cut out before it reached John O'Neill.
Berwick were next to show and a Craig Feroz mis-hit fell kindly for Neil Bennett who crashed a shot goalwards that Colin Scott managed to get down to and push away just at the post.
Martin Glancy was proving effective today and from a quickly taken free kick on the left sent a hard and low cross into the goal mouth that the visiting 'keeper did well to cut out as John O'Neill was waiting just behind him.
Graham Connell replaced Stuart Davidson with twenty four minutes of the half gone and two minutes later Berwick pulled their first goal back as the defence were caught out and a shot form Forrest, with what looked like the aid of a deflection, got past Scott.
It was the Borderers who were on top now and Colin Scott had to pull off another fine save as he tipped the ball over the bar for a corner.
John Connolly then made one last change with four minutes to go as he put on Jon Sunderland for the hard working Peter Weatherson.
The sucker punch came in the last minute as a throw on the right was collected by a Berwick forward with his back to goal and a Queens defender behind him, he still managed to cross the ball with an overhead kick, the fourth of the match from a Berwick player, and find the unmarked Gary Wood in the six yard box to easily nod home for the equaliser.
A draw was a fair result today but both sides looked ordinary and the game itself never reached any heights. The good news is that despite dropping two points we still manage to climb one place in the league tonight thanks to other results.
Apologies for there not being any match photographs from todays game, I remembered the camera but forgot the batteries! It's not been a good week.
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